Friday, April 2, 2010

Essential Liquor #5

#5) Herbsaint- Never heard of it? Well, it’s got to be in your bar. Louisiana in the 1800s was the U.S. king of absinthe. Then the government decided to ban absinthe for nearly 100 years from 1915-2007. So, in 1934, an enterprising tag team of J.M. Legendre and Reginald Parker of New Orleans created absinthe without its offending ingredient- wormwood. Of course, the government stormed back in to stop this absinthe too. So they simply changed the name to Herbsaint. In my opinion, it’s tastier that anything the French have.For our recipe, we go back to the mid-1920s, where a Russian doctor, Serge Voronoff, was hard at work in Paris perfecting his surgeries of which he hoped would deliver on the promise of eternal youth. How, you ask? Well by transplanting a young monkey testicle into an old dude’s sack, of course! (You can’t make this stuff up!) Anyway, the expected aphrodisiac effects of this procedure inspired a great drink. No, there’s no monkey juices in it. Man, you guys are sick.

The liqueur substitutes would be absinthe, sambuca, ouzo, razzouk, Ricard, Pernod... You're close to Mexico, maybe you can find some D'Aristi Xtabentun...never had it, but it might be interesting in the Gland.

I'm catching up on my homework. I just made a Monkey Gland. You are spot on with this drink man. It tastes like orange sherbert. The anise flavors of the D'Aristi are perfect. I sipped the bottle first. This stuff feels like syrup in your mouth. It coats your whole mouth. I may have to try Herbsaint to compare. The Xtabentun is very sweet as well. Is the Herbsaint anything like my description